steve brown live from columbus, ohio with the story on why. steve. >> yeah, megyn the united mine workers of america decided to sit this one out, if you will. the two things you need to know about eastern iowa, southeastern iowa is this. one, that it's among the swingeist areas of the state that they split tickets a lot out there and it's up for grabs. two, coal is huge and provides some of the best paying blue collar jobs. it is not unusual for someone working in mining out there to work 60, 70 hours a week with really terrific benefits. and given the overall economic picture out there it provides some of the best employment opportunities outside of retail. >> it's the only job around here. i mean if you're not in the medical field, coal minor, steel millions are shut down. they sent those to china you've got school teach, medical, coal mining: toxins coming out of smokes tax have put a crimp in coal fire electric generating plants. a dozen of those have shut down in the state of ohio. as a consequence so say coal mining operators seven mines